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“Obama High School”??? In North Carolina???

The Alamance-Burlington (NC) School Board could consider a local citizen’s request to rename Western Alamance High School and Western Alamance Middle School as “Obama High School” and “Obama Middle School,” respectively, according to a report in the Burlington Times-News.

According to the paper, Grace Baldwin, a local day care operator, did not state a reason for her request, other than that the Western school district is “‘a nice area’ and she thinks students would benefit from having school names with historic significance. Baldwin said she might later suggest re-naming other schools.”

“Jackie Cole, the school board’s chairwoman, said later she believes it would take a large amount of community support for the system to consider changing a school’s name,” according to the Times-News.

Will the school board change the schools’ names? Who knows. But this is certain: if you disagree with Ms. Baldwin’s misguided attempt to have the names of these schools changed to honor a man who has no known connection to North Carolina, much less Alamance County or Western High School, and whose “historical significance” is yet to be fully decided, then please make your voice heard. There are a few things you can do:

2. Contact the members of the Alamance-Burlington School Board. FYI – although the Board is officially nonpartisan, there are 4 Dems (Erwin, Evans, Simpson, Van Pelt) and 3 Republicans (Manning, Cole, Moffitt).